1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an effective process for producing photoconductive members which comprises forming a photoconductive layer on a given support by utilizing glow discharge, said photoconductive layer being constructed of amorphous material comprising silicon atoms as matrix.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a gas for forming a photoconductive layer of amorphous material comprising silicon atoms as matrix is introduced into a deposition chamber, possible to evacuate, and a photoconductive layer having desired properties is formed on a given support by utilizing a plasmic phenomenon caused by glow discharge, in particular when the photoconductive layer needs to be of large area, it is very difficult as compared to the usual vacuum deposition process to increase the rate of forming the layer while keeping the entire area of the layer uniform in thickness, physical properties such as electrical, optical, and photoelectric characteristics, and layer qualities.
For instance, when a layer of amorphous silane (hereinafter referred to as a-Si:H) is formed on a support by decomposing gaseous SiH.sub.4 using electric discharge energy and electrical properties of the layer are intended to utilize, lower rates of layer deposition and elevated temperatures of support are necessary in order to obtain uniform electrical properties and improved layer qualities throughout the entire area of layer because electrical properties of the layer depend largely upon the rate of layer deposition and the support temperature.
On the other hand, in order to increase the rate of layer deposition in view of improvements in the efficiency and scale of production, an approach is to increase the discharge power and the gas flow, but it has a marked tendency to deteriorate electrical, optical, and photoconductive characterisitcs of the produced layer and to increase the local dependency of these characteristics, so that it is extremely difficult to form a layer of good quality.
Such being the case, for the purpose of industrializing the production of photoconductive members having a layer of amorphous material comprising silicon atoms as matrix, it is necessary to improve the efficiency and scale of production including the reproducibility while keeping the layer qualities and uniformity thereof which are largely correlated with the photosensitivity and repeated service characteristics of the photoconductive members.